Spitz: The scary side of teen stowaway's story

Friday

Apr 25, 2014 at 1:18 AM

Like most kids, I had my share of hare-brained ideas when I was 15.Instead of rolling up the family car's windows when a heavy rain moved in, I decided to drive the car into the garage. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about driving a car with a clutch and I drove it quite literally into the garage.I joined classmates in pulling lunchroom pranks like putting sugar in the salt shakers.I invited friends over when I was supposed to be babysitting my brother, and was stupid enough to get all dolled up before my parents left for the night, which raised a few red flags in their eyes and got me grounded for months.Here's what never once crossed my mind: Head over to the airport and stow away in the wheel well of a jumbo jet.And yet, we have a 15-year-old doing just that, this time with a far better outcome than the horrific story of the 16-year-old who fell out over Milton on his way from North Carolina in 2010.The 15-year-old, who somehow survived the trip from California to Hawaii, may have been trying to get to Somalia, where his mother lives, according to published reports. No word on whether his plan would be to stow away on an international flight in the same fashion, which would have even less likelihood of turning out well. Apparently, he wasn't sure where the Maui-bound plane he stowed away on was headed. He just picked the first plane he happened to see. And when he got to Hawaii, he was pretty disoriented and apparently wandered around on the tarmac for an hour before being noticed.The story is certainly scary for the kid on every possible level, and for parents of teens who have to wonder if their offspring might be capable of something so idiotic.For the rest of us, the story's scary factor goes way beyond what bone-headed moves seem like solid plans to the teen brain.It makes us realize that while we're busy taking off our shoes, passing through metal detectors and having our shampoo bottles confiscated for being an ounce over the limit, we still have some major gaps in airport security.It's a blurry line between safety and getting anything done. If every person at every airport was thoroughly checked for every conceivable problem, infraction or risk every moment, travel and commerce would virtually cease to exist.Still, it's pretty easy to conclude if a kid can put himself in a wheel well and go unnoticed, a terrorist could do something worse.And although there are some issues on which I don't see eye-to-eye with our Sen. Ed Markey, I applaud his championing the cause of cargo screening. It's a different issue, but the same problem. While we're busy making sure everyone removes the loose change from their pockets, far bigger potential threats go unchecked.There is no easy, one-size-fits-all, common-sense and cost-effective answer to plug all our travel security gaps and still allow us to keep moving with any sort of reasonable speed.But when a 15-year-old's lack of sane thinking allows him to sneak into a plane's innards in one American airport, then wander about on the tarmac at another, we do need to question whether we're putting our security resources to their best use.If the sad fate of the North Carolina stowaway wasn't enough of a wake-up call, the happier story about the kid from California should sound the alarm that airport scrutiny shouldn't be confined to the TSA passenger screening line.Julia Spitz can be reached at 508-626-3968 or jspitz@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter at SpitzJ_MW.